Friday, July 27, 2007

Finished it Already!

I know I am not as fast as some who finished to book on last Saturday. I am not a book reviewer either. What I will do instead is just write about how I felt after finishing the series finale of the Harry Potter series.

Spoiler Alert!! Don't read further if you haven't finished the book or if you give a s#&$.

How did I find the book? Definitely interesting in parts. Rowling had me clutching the book till 2 o'clock in night on two consecutive nights before I dozed off. The way the story begins is like how you would expect - chaos ranging with the Dark Lord on his helm of power and thus causing a death in as early as second chapter. And then it flies like a speeding sedan doing 95 mph on a deserted freeway in middle of the night until it is slowed down by a jam caused by accident or something. For next twenty excruciating minutes, it crawls through the mess and once cleared, again it attains its original speed.

This is my first complain with the book. The middle part of the book, like a boring second session of the third day of a much anticipated test match, simply doesn't move. I know Rowling wanted us to understand that it is not easy for someone (especially for the group of Harry, Hermione and Ron - short on information, plan and consul) to find a goddamn horcrux. But then revelations such as secrets of R.A.B. and Gryffindor's sword come by without any efforts from Harry and Co. Things do fall in place, Harry is simply in right place at the right time. I felt I might as well have skipped few pages and missed nothing worthwhile.

Then the other problem is the whole Severus Snape's death episode. I was afraid that Rowling might pull a Wachowski, and she did. Snape's death is similar to Trinity's death in the Matrix Revolutions. How lame was that? Fortunately for Severus, Rowling redeems him at least after his death putting an end to one of the most vociferously fought cyber-battles similar to Emacs vs Vi: Is Severus Snape evil?

But that aside, other parts of the book were thoroughly entertaining. This book was by far the bloodiest in the series with as many as twenty deaths (WP) with six of good men, women, elves and animals passing on. With so many deaths, there is not much time to moan like there was in case of Sirius or Dumbledore. Or like the character of Harry, even Rowling makes us to deal with the death as an inevitable part of the life. The proceedings in Ministry, Gringotts and Hogwarts are nail biting. Malfoy Manor, Godric Hollows not so much. The humor in certain situations is notable and helps us keep the tension in check. And no, I didn't miss the Quidditch matches. Enough of it already!

So finally after all this, my conclusion? Not to be missed if you want to finish the storyline. Well, duh! But again, not the best book in the series either. That would be PoA or HBP.